Genealogy Chat

Now I don't want to be a spoilsport and we all like to help others out but there could be a problem when doing look ups for other people.

Some of us subscribe to various resources, Ancestry, Scotland's People, The Genealogist, Find My Past to name but a few.

As subscriber members to these sites we are all LEGALLY bound by the TERMS AND CONDITIONS of your particular subscription website.

The general T&C's usually states that you will not do look up's for other people, reproduce any of the content from the subscription site or copy any of the content and place it on the internet or in the public domain.

Failure to comply with the T&C's of a subscription website could result in "the looker up" LOOSING THEIR SUBSCRIPTION OR BEING SUBJECT TO LEGAL ACTION.

I am NOT saying don't do look up's but be careful and aware that if you quote or cut and paste the exact content from the website where the information came from or you actually quote where the information came from you leave yourself open to action by the copyright holder of the database from where the information came from.

This action could be anything from canceling your subscription to that website or actual legal action in the courts.

Ron
www.genealogyprinters.com

Hi Ron,
If you pay a fee for a certificate or an image, say from somewhere like scotlandspeople for instance then, techincally you have purchased it, and then surely it belongs to you.
Should you decide to say, start a tree on Ancestry for example, surely you can display anything that you have paid for and now own.?
The images and information you have collected, you have paid for.
I could be wrong.!!
I think it could be a different matter if you glean information from a free site, as you have not made an agreement to purchase it with the said site.

Just a thought...

This topic was discussed 4 years ago. I have never heard of anyone having had legal action taken against them.
I guess there is always a first time.

I think that you have now successfully scared me off. I have a lot more of my own to do and do not want to loose my subscription.

Gail

Ive always been surprised how lenient ancestry have been. I assume its because most people, having got a taste of the information that would be available to them through seeing what look ups give, then go on to purchase a sub themselves.

Of course in a lot of instances, the enquirer already has an ancestry sub and is just asking for assistance in finding the info.

Hi Foggy.

It does not matter if you pay for the image or to view the text. The copyright remains with the website holder and you are breaking the copyright law and the websites T&C's if you reproduce it in any form and make it public.

As an example, have you ever had a photo taken at a professional photographers or had school photos taken of your children, if you have then you will see a logo in the corner of the picture, trhis is the photographers copyright, now you might turn round and say, it's my photo and I've paid for it but that does not give you the copyright or the right to reproduce or copy it, the copyright belongs to the photographer.


Margaret,

I do know somebody that has lost their subscription to a Pay per View Website because of the very reasons I have stated and they were also threatened with legal action if it happens again, that's why I posted the original message.

I AM NOT TRYING TO STOP PEOPLE DOING LOOK UPS.

I'm just saying be careful about how and where you state you got the information from

Ron
www.genealogyprinters.com

I think Ancestry in particular do quite well as a result of look ups for others!
Many people email me asking how they can join once they see whats available

Christine

Since we're not making any money from passing on information I can't see a problem, I can't see the mighty ancestry company taking an OAP to task somehow.!

I wouldn't be to sure about that Lindsey.Making money out of it is not the issue, it's the fact that by doing it you are breaking the law.

EMI the record company took a 55 year old woman to court because her daughter was downloading music from Limewire and she got fined £2,000.

Ron
www.genealogyprinters.com

I thought one of GR members was threatened with action about 3 or 4 years ago for posting info from another site on to this one.

So what's to stop you from sending it via PM , how would they know?
Besides they'd have a job getting more than 20p out of me !

I remember reading something about this before, think it was on here.

One site in particular, not Ancestry, were checking the people you were looking up and obviously knew by the amount of different names, areas etc that they were not your family.

Christine

I think the thing to be wary of on Ancestry is sending images to other people from the site........they can, and do, keep track of that.

If you wish to send an image to someone else.........always save it to your own computer, and forward it as an attachment by normal e-mail.

If you don't have a tree on Ancestry........they can't possibly say that the info you glean is not connected to your family............

on ancestry there is a button on image page which says share info this will send the image to another persons email so how can it be against their policy?

n

david

i have done plenty of look ups for people on ancestry world wide you can send images to email wether they are a member or not, if they are not a member it will limited the number of images they can view to 5 if they want anymore they have to join up to ancestry

I think Ron is absolutely correct which if why I stopped doing Ancestry lookups sometime ago.

I also belong to another family history site which does NOT allow you to C&P. They do allow you to type out the info that's shown on Ancestry but every post has to acknowledge the "Crown Copyright"

If I now find someone that's mistranscribed I just type out "he's on the 1891 as X YYYYYYY born 1066"

When you think about it, doing constant lookups for people without subs is not doing us any favours , it just pushes the price we pay up even further.

No offence but I just wonder what Ancestry/FMP would make of some of the threads on here which are offering to do lookups!

claire

I have to disagree with you (sorry) I think that when people realise how much info is on ancestry they are more inclined to join themselves.

I agree that some do Lorraine but others have been asking for constant lookups for months on end

Glad my Ancestry sub has expired. Cant be tempted to do look ups now. Its true some want constant look ups.
I wonder if they ever bother to buy certs to confirm the findings or just enjoy adding all the names